Bangkok is sinking slowly ... into the sea

Meteorologist Smith Dharmasaraja's warning said that with the rate of subsidence of 1.5 to 5.3 cm per year combined with sea level rise due to climate change like now, 20 years to the capital Thailand's Bangkok will be below sea level.

Located on a flat delta plain with low slopes, where the Chao Phraya River flows into the Gulf of Thailand, Bangkok is categorized as the most threatened city at risk of coastal flooding in the next 60 years. Currently, the eastern areas of the city such as Lad Phrao, Phra Khanong and Bang Na have been lowered to 1.7 m in just 60 years.

Flooding in Hat Yai city. (Photo: Bangkok Post )

Natural subsidence process due to the terrain of the city is mostly clay. In addition, there is an over-exploitation of wells in the ground while there are more and more skyscrapers with huge weights. According to Thanawat Jarupongsakul's metaphor, Bangkok is an obese city on a childlike skeleton .

According to oceanographer Anond Snidvongs, director of the Center for Research on Climate Change, complete submergence in seawater may not happen immediately, but major floods are in the hundreds of square kilometers. can impact half of Bangkok's urban areas and make these areas uninhabitable for about 60 days / year.

The World Bank also forecasts that by the year 2050, about 1 million people in Bangkok will have to live in flooded areas regularly.

So far, the Thai Government has only had a few measures to protect Bangkok from flooding, but experts say it is not safe enough to build river dykes and breakwaters around the city. street, pump station system, canal to drain water and lakes regulate. The whole system is expected to deal with a maximum rising water level of 2.5 m.